OT pay, breaks for nannies, maids OKd

LEGISLATURE Lawmakers send domestic worker bill to governor

Nannies, housekeepers and other domestic employees would be entitled to overtime pay, meal breaks and other rights already afforded to most California workers under a bill sent to Gov. Jerry Brown Thursday.

Brown will also decide whether California should provide driver's licenses to hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants now eligible to work under President Obama's new "deferred action" policy, after the Assembly overwhelmingly passed that measure late Thursday. The domestic worker bill, authored by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, would require the Department of Industrial Relations to create regulations by Jan. 1, 2014 that mandate overtime, meal and rest breaks and uninterrupted sleep periods for all domestic workers in California.

It exempts babysitters under the age of 18, as well as family members, and if signed by Brown, would make California one of only two states that mandate such rights for these in-home workers. The Assembly approved the bill Thursday, 42-27. Earlier this week it passed the Senate, 21-13, without a vote to spare.

"For too long, worker exploitation in this industry has been invisible," said Ammiano, who tried for two years to get the bill to the governor's desk. He added that the legislation would put the "hard-working" population "on the radar for labor protections."

He said a number of amendments were made to ensure that families may still employ casual babysitters and other part-time employees without coming under the law's purview, and noted that the department will work with both employers and workers to develop the regulations.

"I think what we are witnessing is the beginning of a regulatory process that is going to go awry and ensnare average working families," he said. "Many of us have hired the daughter of a neighbor, put them to work for several years. This will ensnare those families ... even if it's not intended."

The so-called Domestic Workers Bill of Rights was one of hundreds of bills lawmakers were rushing to pass Thursday, prior to Friday's midnight legislative deadline.

Other bills

Other bills sent to the governor included AB2189, the driver's license bill. Its author, Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, has been working for 14 years to pass some version of the measure and give undocumented Californians driver's licenses, and it was his final bill before he leaves office later this year.

"It really is about public safety ... it's better to have people who are licensed and insured," he said. "It will ensure that our Department of Motor Vehicles is able to recognize the new legal status of young men and women brought here by no choice of their own, who played by the rules, who have not broken any laws."

The measure passed 55-15, with one Republican voting in support.

The Assembly also sent Brown a measure that would authorize state officials to spend more than $20 million of the $54 million of public funds recently discovered at the state parks department. The measure would appropriate $10 million to match contributions from donors, with another $10 million to parks that are at risk of closure and $500,000 for the various audits and investigations looking into why parks employees were able to hide money for more than a decade. It would also place a two-year moratorium on park closures.

Additionally, Brown will consider:

-- SB1172, a bill that would ban therapy that attempts to change the sexual orientation of a minor. Researchers say such therapy is ineffective and may be harmful while backers of the ban say the practice psychologically damages minors, leading some to suicide.

-- AB2676, which makes it a misdemeanor for employers not to provide agricultural workers with shade and potable water; violators could face a $10,000 fine or six months in jail, or up to $25,000 and one year in jail if the employee is injured.

The Legislature also sent several mortgage- and property-related bills to Brown this week, which were part of a package of legislation known as the Homeowners Bill of Rights and pushed by state Attorney General Kamala Harris in response to the mortgage crisis.

SB1474 would give the attorney general the ability to use a statewide grand jury to investigate and indict people who commit financial crimes in more than one county; AB1950, would extend the one-year statute of limitations for prosecuting mortgage-related crimes to three years; and AB2610 would require people who purchase foreclosed homes to give tenants 90 days before they can start eviction proceedings.

The bill package's most wide-ranging elements were already approved by lawmakers and signed by Brown earlier this summer.